This invention relates to a cell for accommodating a supporting body such as agarose gel for the electrophoretic separation and measurement of albumin contained in body fluids and, more particularly, to a cell suited for use in an automated analyzing apparatus for achieving highly accurate measurements.
In order to electrophoretically isolate various kinds of albumin contained in body fluids, it is conventional practice to form a layer of a supporting body, namely a gel made of agar-agar, agarose or the like, to a predetermined thickness on a plastic film or glass plate, provide holes in the gel layer at predetermined positions for the application of samples of blood serum or the like, introduce the samples into the holes, dispose the film or plate in an electrophoretic compartment, form a bridge, made of a buffer solution-permeated sponge or the like, from both ends of the gel into buffer tanks filled with a buffer solution and accommodating electrodes, and carry out electrophoresis by introducing an electric current from the buffer tanks into the gel via the bridges.
An electrophoretic method which has come into use in recent years teaches to form the gel layer on a plastic film, bend both the film and the gel layer simultaneously during electrophoresis to immerse both ends thereof directly into the buffer solution contained in the buffer tanks accommodating the electrodes, and then passing an electric current through the gel.
In an apparatus adapted to automatically apply samples to the sample holes and to automatically read the separated substances, however, the foregoing methods of forming bridges by means such as sponges or of bending the gel layer entail considerable human labor and cannot be applied to the automated apparatus.